Parliament approved paying back a €1.8 billion budgetary surplus from 2018 to member states

On Wednesday, MEPs approved a €100 million top-up for the EU’s research programmes (€80 million for Horizon 2020) and youth mobility (€20 million for Erasmus+).

MEPs approved, by 614 votes in favour, 69 against and 10 abstentions, a €100 million boost to the EU’s flagship programmes Horizon 2020 (€80 million for research funding) and Erasmus+ (€20 million for youth mobility), as decided by the European Parliament and the Council in their agreement on the 2019 EU budget in December 2018.

In another vote, they agreed by 601 votes in favour, 40 against and 12 abstentions to return a €1.8 billion budget reflow from 2018 to the EU member states, through a decrease in the countries’ contributions to the EU budget. This is an annual exercise, the surplus usually stemming from default interest and fines received by the Commission, as well as under-implementation of EU programmes.